128 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



three to six; there generally is four. They are pure white with a delicate rosy blush, when fresh, and measure 

 0.97 by 0.07 of an inch. The young break the shell at the expiration of twenty or twenty-two days' incubation, the 

 labor of which is not shared by the male; he, however, brings food to his male, singing as most birds do of his 

 kind, highly elated by the prospects of paternity. The chicks, at first, are sparsely covered with a sprinkling of 

 dark-gray down, and in two or three weeks gain their feathers, fitting them for flight, though they do not acquire 

 the ash and black of the head, while the chocolate-brown on the back is rich, and the rosy tints of their leather-tips 

 turn to crimson. These bright hues of adolescence do not appear until they are one year old; between the old 

 birds, however, there is no outward dissimilarity in size or coloration, the male and female being exactly alike. 

 They feed upon various seeds and insects, as well as the larvce which swarm on the killing-grounds. They are 

 fearless and confiding, fluttering in the most familiar manner around the village huts. Iu the summer of 1S73 a 

 pair built their nest and reared a brood under the eaves of the old Greek church, that tottered on its rotten 

 foundations, at St. George. It has no song, but utters a low, mellow chirp, sounding this note both flying and 

 sitting, in the same cadence. It seems to pair off altogether and never reassembles iu flocks. I secured a large 

 number of beautiful specimens of the adults of both sexes in neat breeding attire, and others illustrating the 

 earliest plumage of the young. 



4. Plectrophanes nivalis. Snow Bunting ; " Snaguiskie." 



The snow-bird is another permanent resident of these islands, but one which, unlike the pahtoshkie, yon will 

 notice, is very shy and retiring, nesting high on the rocky, broken uplands, never coming down to the village, 

 except during unusually severe or protracted cold weather. This bird builds an elegant and elaborate nest of soft, 

 dry moss and grass, and lines it warmly again with a thick bed of feathers. It is placed on the ground beneath some 

 heavy lava-shelf or at the foot of an enormous bowlder. Five eggs arc usually laid, about the 1st of June; they 

 are an inch long by two-thirds broad, of a grayish or greenish white, spotted sometimes all over, sometimes at or 

 around the larger end only, with various shades of rich dark-brown, purplish-brown, and paler neutral tints. 

 Sometimes the whole surface is quite closely clouded with diffuse reddish-brown markings. Upon the female the 

 entire labor of the three weeks' incubation required for thehatching of her brood devolves. During this period the 

 male is assiduous in bringing food; and at frequent intervals sings his simple but sweet song, rising, as he begins 

 it, high up in the air, as the skylark does, and at the end of the strain drops suddenly to the ground again. The 

 young are early provided with a gray, downy coating, which is speedily replaced by one resembling that of the 

 adult female; and, in less than four weeks from the date of hatching, the little "snaguiskie" is as big as its parents 

 and weighs more. The food of this species consists of the various seeds and insects peculiar to the rough, higher 

 grounds it frequents, beiug especially fond of the small coleopterous beetles fouud on the island. It never flies 

 about the rocks here, and cannot be called at any season of the year gregarious, like its immediate relative, the 

 Lapland longspur, with which it is associated on these sea-girt islets. 



5. Plectrophanes lapponicus. Lapland Longspur; " Karesch-navie snaguiskie.'' 



This bird is the vocalist par excellence of the Pribylov group, singing all through the month of June in the 

 most exquisite manner, rising high iu the air and hovering on fluttering wings over its sitting mate. The song is 

 so sweet that it is always too short, though it lasts a few moments, with brief intervals only. This songster is much 

 more shy and reserved than the common snow-bunting; and it rarely enters the village. It is most abundant on 

 St. Paul island, where, unlike the snowflake, it seeks the low, grassy grounds, both for food and resting, being 

 never found among the rough bowlders chosen for a home by the other Plectrophanes. The two nests, which I fouud, 

 were built in tussocks of grass on the low, hummocky flat between the village and the main ridge of St. George, 

 sheltered and half concealed beneath a drapery of withered grass. In each case the mother-bird did not fly away 

 till I almost stepped upon her nest, when she quickly fluttered off and disappeared in perfect silence. Those nests 

 and females in breeding dress were the first of their kind to arrive at the Smithsonian collection. One nest 

 contained four and the other five eggs, rather smaller than the snow-bunting, and of a rich, gray-brown color, with 

 deep shades of brown running over them in spots and suffused lines. These examples were not discovered until the 

 7th of July, at which date the eggs iu both were perfectly fresh. They were, probably, not laid until about the end 

 of June. The young appear in the same manner as those of P. nivalis. The males do not assume the distinctive 

 coloration of their sex until the next season. The natives say that very severe weather sometimes drives the 

 longspur away, although the other relative, the snow-bunting, is never forced to leave. 



6. Corvus corax. Raven ; " Var-rone." 



As I have remarked in my general introduction, the experiment of introducing ravens was unsuccessfully tried 

 by the Eussians, but the natives still claim that if a number of young birds were brought here and raised, they 

 could be induced to remain upon the islands during the whole season. They say that the failure to keep those birds 

 brought up from Oonalashka, on several occasions prior, was due to the fact of their being old birds. 



7. Falco sacer. Gyrfalcon. 



The specimen of this bird, in my collection, was evidently stranded and forced out of its usual flight when I 

 secured it on the Reef point at St. Paul island, March, 1873. It was the only one that I saw while there. 



